Obama Risks Administration Clashes to Expand National Security Council
The success of Obamas national security reorganization may depend on how well a bigger group of top officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, can get along with the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the White House Situation Room.
“The human factor is really, really important,” said Leon Fuerth, a professor at George Washington University and a member of the nonpartisan Project for National Security Reform. NSC members will have “a choice about whether they are also prepared to operate as a team.”
Obamas “Presidential Policy Directive 1,” dated Feb. 13, added agency heads and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice to the reconfigured NSC, which advises the president on national security and foreign policy decisions. Vice President Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and national security adviser James Jones are also members of the group.
A lack of dissenting opinions in President George W. Bushs national security structure contributed to missteps and intelligence failures that helped send the nation to war, said University of Maryland professor Mac Destler.
Different Viewpoints
“The big problem in the first Bush term was that the president didnt get brought before him, in a serious and adversarial way, the various sides to the very big issues — the biggest being, do we invade Iraq?” said Destler, co-author of a book on the NSC, “In the Shadow of the Oval Office.”
Adding top officials from the Energy Department, the UN and the Justice Department reflects the growing importance of energy independence, diplomacy and law enforcement to national security.
“The governance structures that were put in place during the 20th century were designed with 20th-century problems,” said Mike Hammer, an NSC spokesman. “Now were dealing with 21st-century challenges.”
Gates, the lone Cabinet holdover from Bushs tenure, said Obama, 47, is more aggressive than his predecessor in seeking different perspectives from advisers.
“President Obama is somewhat more analytical, and he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue,” Gates said March 1 on NBCs “Meet the Press” program. “President Bush was interested in hearing different points of view, but didnt go out of his way to make sure everybody spoke.”
Working Together
The NSC was created in 1947 during President Harry Trumans administration. Through the decades, most presidents have rejiggered the councils membership to reflect shifting priorities.
Jones, a retired four-star Marine general, has promised new approaches to policy making. “The world that we live in has changed so dramatically in this decade that organizations that were created to meet a certain set of criteria no longer are terribly useful,” the national security adviser said in a Feb. 8 interview with the Washington Post.
Incremental Changes
In a big-picture sense, Obamas order largely makes “incremental changes, rather than fundamental changes,” Destler said. Steve Biegun, who was the NSCs executive secretary during Bushs first term, said “there are no radical departures” in the reorganization.
The risk in Obamas approach is the possibility that the NSC becomes too big to make decisions quickly. “The complications that could arise is a square of the number of people on the list,” Destler said.
The NSCs purview may continue to grow. Obama has ordered a 60-day review of whether to fold in the responsibilities of the White Houses Homeland Security Council, a separate group that Bush created after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The two entities should be combined, said former Missouri Republican Senator Jim Talent, who is vice chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism.
Add A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.